Whitby & District Astronomical Society

Dawn Planets

Venus languishes very low to the east horizon and is technically visible all month for less than 30mins before sunrise.  Mercury joins it later in the month, but this a very difficult apparition to view.

Jupiter and Saturn are better placed for observation and dominate the early morning sky, although they are still rather low, residing on the southerly part of the ecliptic visible before sunrise.

Jupiter is by far the most conspicuous object in the dawn sky and is visible in the east around 02:00h by mid April, lying to the south as morning brightens.  Jupiter resides to the right of the ‘Teapot’ asterism in Sagittarius and reaches its stationary point on the 10^th, before commencing its retrograde motion against the backdrop of stars.

Jupiter will continue to brighten reaching mag - 2.45 by the month’s end with a disc size of 43 arc seconds; large enough for a wealth of detail to be revealed even in smaller instruments.  The Moon lies close by on the 23^rd and 24^th. 

Jupiter Galilean moon transit or shadow transit dates of interest as follows:
4^th and 5^th, 11^th, 12^th, 14^th,16^th, 19^th, 20^th 23^rd, 27^th, 28^th and 30^th.  Events between 03:00-05:30h

The great red spot transits on the disk on the following dates:
11/12^th; 13/14^th; 18/19^th; 23/24^th all between 03:00-04:30h.

Saturn trails Jupiter into the sky by a couple of hours and is considerably less bright, but still conspicuous to the eye.  It resides to the left of the ‘teapot’ asterism - pretty low to the horizon, and observations are going to be somewhat compromised due to our atmosphere.  Nevertheless if you have a telescope, your patience at the eyepiece will ultimately be rewarded.  The moon lies in proximity on the 25^th and 26^th.

Pallas at its best

One of the original big four minor planets, Pallas, comes to opposition on the 10/11 April peaking at Magnitude +7.9 and therefore well within the range of binoculars and smaller telescopes. 

You can track it down very close to eta Bootis or Muphrid in Bootes on opposition night.  With a diameter of over 500km, it is a big old chunk of rock and if you can observe it for any length of time its motion should be perceptible and therefore an exciting prospect.